


Chronic Hanahaki

by Robynx



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Big Sister Koala, Blanket Permission, Chronic Hanahaki, Hanahaki Disease, Happy Ending, Loss of Trust, M/M, Mama Makino, Marco makes bad decisions, Mutual Pining, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Not Beta Read, Not Whitebeard Pirate freindly, conected series of drabbles?, drabble?, even though they don't know it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 9,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22838302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robynx/pseuds/Robynx
Summary: These boys are idiots and managed to be completely in love with one another, despite the fact that one doesn't remember the other, and one thinks the other's dead. AKA what if instead of Hanahaki being a terminal death sentence, it was chronic and came back every year.
Relationships: Portgas D. Ace/Sabo
Comments: 195
Kudos: 298





	1. Initial pining

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this tumblr post.  
> https://hiruma-musouka.tumblr.com/post/190814464330/this-is-honestly-how-i-initially-thought-hanahaki

Sabo hated this time of year. Hated it with the kind of burning passion he usually reserved for slavers and the world government. But he felt that in this case it was justified. Sabo had been fighting down and ignoring the itching in the back of his throat for days now, but this morning he had slipped up and let himself cough. And with that cough had come up 2 golden flower petals. It was Hanahaki season. Sabo hated Hanahaki season.

It probably wouldn’t be so bad, he mussed bitterly, if he actually knew who the bloody hell he was apparently in love with. But as it was, every year since he had been rescued by Dragon-Sama and brought to the Revolution he inevitably spent a solid month hacking up flower petals. It didn’t help that his case was one of the worst the medics had ever seen. Almost every year he reached a point where he had to be confined to bed because even sitting up required more oxygen than there was room in his flower-filled lungs to supply. Medical had been trying to get him to agree to a removal operation for nearly a decade, and every year he had made a mental vow that this would be the year he let them. After all, as previously stated, he had absolutely no idea who this person he was supposedly in love with was. It wouldn’t change anything in his life, except removing the humiliating fact that the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army was completely useless for an entire month every year.

It was just… Before the Celestial Dragon, before his amnesia, there was someone he _loved._ Someone he loved enough that he was still coughing up flowers 8 ½ years later. And Sabo knew it was the same person, because his disease always reached the point where he was coughing up whole flowers; sometimes clumps of them. The flower had never changed. A blood-red Hibiscus, except for the gold at its heart.

* * *

Ace hated this time of year. Hated it with the icy rage he otherwise reserved exclusively for marines and the world government. But Ace knew it was justified in this case. He had been finding every excuse possible to be fire for days now, but this morning he had had to sit through a commander's meeting and ended up coughing. And with that cough had come up 2 blue petals. It was Hanahaki season. Ace hated Hanahaki season.

It probably wouldn’t be so bad, he mussed bitterly, if he didn’t know exactly who it was he was still in love with. But as it was, every year since he had been 8 and despite his fervent and intense denial of the situation at the time, he spent an entire month hacking up flowers without fail. It didn’t help that his case was one of the worst most doctors had ever seen. Almost every year he wound up on mandatory bed rest because he literally couldn’t breathe around the flowers filling his lungs. It would be literally every year, but Ace had discovered that, since eating the Mera Mera no Mi, if he was fire, there were no flowers. Last year he had spent literally the entire month as a living human-shaped flame and avoided the whole situation altogether. But there was no way in hell he was ever going to have the growth removed, despite how humiliating it was going to be when everyone found out that the Second Division commander of the WhiteBeard Pirates was going to be completely useless for an entire month every year.

He, Portgas D. Ace, was in love with his childhood best friend and sworn brother. He loved him enough that he was still coughing up flowers 8 ½ years after his death. Ace knew it was still Sabo he was in love with, because his month always ended with him choking up entire tangled and branch clusters of the small flowers. Forget-Me-Nots. And Ace never would. He would never let himself. He would never let someone cut those feelings out of him.


	2. Chapter 2

Ace was about 30 seconds away from flambéing Thatch. Now, normally, the cook was one of his best friends on the Moby Dick.

Normally.

However, normally said friend wasn’t hounding him about his ‘secret mystery crush that Ace needed to let big brother Thatch resolve for him’. Normally, that wasn’t a thing.

So, normally, Ace enjoyed Thatch’s company.

Today was not a normal day.

“But Ace,” Thatch whined, dragging Ace’s name out in a way that made him twitch and his fingers clench, “You can’t not tell me! I can keep a secret! We’re buds! Plus, you obviously need a wingman! Come on!”

“Thatch, that is the absolutely last thing I need right now so would you please shut up and leave me alone?” Ace tried, he really did, but his voice got progressively more violent as he spoke, and his last few words came out as a snarl.

He could feel the pressure building up in his throat. He wanted to hack and cough and burn but there was no way in hell Ace was going to give in to it while he still had an audience.

Thankfully, however, Thatch seemed to be clueing in that Ace did not want to talk about his Hanahaki, was not going to talk about his Hanahaki, and was reaching his last nerve with people trying to force him to acknowledge his Hanahaki. Meaning Thatch had blinked and stalled long enough that Ace was able to dart behind some members of the 5th division that were walking towards them and then double back into a side passage before Thatch saw. It was moments like this that Ace was grateful that he had spent 3½ months sneaking around the ship trying to kill Whitebeard, it meant that when he wanted to vanish and not deal with anything for a while, he knew all the nooks and crannies to make it happen.

Ace was only given a few seconds of reprieve however before he doubled over, his whole body shaking with the coughs that racked through it. It was a solid 60 seconds before he was able to claw the full stem out of his throat and steady his rasping breath.

This wasn’t good. It was too early.

It was barely April, he shouldn’t be growing full stems until mid-May.

A kind of hysterical dissociation was gripping at Ace’s chest. He knew how this worked. He knew how his flowers grew, and at what rate, and he knew how long he had until he was forced to curl up somewhere and focus on simply breathing until the flowers withered up and died again for the year. Ace had been dealing with this for 11 years, he knew how it worked.

Except apparently, he didn’t, and right now, he didn’t know what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is likely going to be updated as drabbles and snippets


	3. Chapter 3

Ace had grumbled good-naturedly and dealt with the catcalls and “What’d you do this time?”s that always accompanied someone being called to see the first division commander. Other commanders were not exempt from this phenomenon and so Ace took it in stride. He assumed it had something to do with the division reports he had turned in last week. He was willing to admit that they were sloppy, he had been paying somewhat more attention to the flowers beginning to grow in his lungs than to his paperwork. He figured he would apologize then use puppy dog eyes to get someone to redo it for him, a handy skill he had picked up from Luffy, not that Ace would ever admit that fact to his little brother.

Ace reached Marco’s office, knocked, got the customary “Come in, Yoi”, opened the door,

And then promptly closed it again, with full intent to turn around and go right back to his room.

Because Marco had been wearing his damned lab coat and glasses, which meant that Ace hadn’t been called to see the First Division Commander, he had been called to see the Whitebeard’s Head Doctor and that was not going to happen.

Unfortunately, before Ace could make his escape, Jozu materialized out of thin air, grabbed his shoulders, picked him up, and somehow managed to deposit him inside Marco’s office before shutting the door again with finality.

Ace bit back one of Dadan’s nastier curses as he turned to glare at Marco.

“Is there a reason you called me here and not to the Infirmary?” he snapped.

“If I had called you to the infirmary, you wouldn’t have shown up, Yoi.” Marco deadpanned, flipping through a file on his desk.

He was right, but there was no way Ace was going to admit that. “Pretty sure I already had my anual checkup, so I’m not really sure what we're doing here.”

Marco gave a long-suffering sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. It was a position he adopted often Ace had noticed. “You have Hanahaki.” It wasn’t a question.

“What of it.” Ace snapped defensively.

“It’s not in your medical file.”

“And?”

“And, yoi, the fact that you’re not surprised, and know how to hide symptoms means that this is chronic.”

“Lot’s of people have Chronic…”

“And most of them aren’t Logias, Ace.” Marco cut him off.

Ace spluttered slightly, “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Do you understand how Hanahaki _works_ , yoi?” Marco asked, seemingly completely jumping topic.

“I love someone, they don’t love me, flowers grow in my lungs.” Ace deadpanned.

Marco didn’t look amused. “I mean the mechanics of it, yoi. An obviously not, so I will explain it to you. Someone who contracts Hanahaki develops tendrils in the lining of the lungs, with roots running up to the heart. Each year, in spring, these tendrils bloom filling the lungs with flowers. If the emotional root is addressed, it detaches from the heart and the tendrils and flowers wither and dissolve. If the emotional root is not addressed, then at the onset of summer, everything still withers, freeing the lungs. However,” Marco pined Ace with his gaze. “The root remains, and the growth merely grows dormant until the next year when it sends out new tendrils, causing what we call Chronic Hanahaki.”

“All you’ve said is that it grows back every year, which I kind of already know Marco.” Ace’s tone was snippy. He couldn’t help it, he hated being treated like a kid.

“No, you’re not Ace.” Marco sighed, “You got your devil fruit before Hanahaki season last year, yes.”

“Yes….?” Ace’s response was hesitant at the jump in topic again.

“And you used it to avoid your growth last year.”

“Well, yah. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Ace you’re not the first Logia to try something like that.”

“Ok? That makes sense. I still don’t see where we're going with this.”

Another sigh. “You didn’t allow the flowers to grow last year, yoi. Which means that the tendrils didn’t expend their energy and wither.”

Ace swallowed; he wasn’t liking where this was going.

“But,” Marco continued, maintaining eye contact. “The root sends out new tendril every year, regardless of whether the old ones have withered or not.”

Ace paled slightly as the implication became clear.

“You currently have two years’ work of growth blooming in your lungs, yoi. I **_need_** to know your history with Hanahaki and the severity of your case. It’s likely you aren’t prepared for the severity two years of grown can cause, yoi. You’re not going to like it but we’ll likely need to put you on bed rest for a week or so near the end of the season, possibly a ventilator if it’s bad enough, yoi. Thank goodness you only pulled your fire trick once, some logia’s keep doing it, not realizing the consequences and…”

“Marco, we…. “Ace cut the older man off. Marco’s attention returned fully to him and Ace swallowed again; hard. “We’re gonna have a problem.”


	4. Chapter 4

Sabo sat there twirling a flower between his fingers. One of _his_ flowers. More his than even his name really, as Sabo was just what had been scratched into the top of his goggles and had felt right enough that, with no other ideas, he had gone with it. He wanted…

“There you are.”

Sabo’s head jerked up, body tense, but he relaxed slightly when he saw who it was. “Jeez Koala, don’t sneak up on people.” He teased.

“Don’t start with me Sabo, you have been putting off your work all morning and….” Koala trailed off, eyes fixed on his hand. The hand with the flower.

Sabo flushed and jerked to hide said flower behind his back.

The sudden movement seemed to snap Koala out of it, as she blinked a few times before, “Are you pining?”

Sabo spluttered.

“You are!” Koala laughed shoving her finger into his face, “Your pining!”

“I’m, that’s not….”

“I can’t believe the Chief of Staff for the Revolutionary Army, one of the most wanted people in the world is hiding away playing “Love’s Me Not”

“I am _not_ playing “Loves Me Not”! that would destroy the flower and I would never…” Sabo trailed off realizing what he had just implied. He felt his face burn.

Koala’s grin was predatory.

“Please just let this go Koala. I’ll go do my paperwork, ok? Just, can we not…”

The grin was gone, replaced by a concerned, “Sabo?”

“I’m just tiered Koala. I’m tired and I want….” He trailed off slowly spinning the blossom between gloved fingers. The Hibiscus fell to the ground as Sabo slipped into a coughing fit clutching at his throat.

Koala immediately moved to support him, as Sabo leaned forward and hacked, shredded petals falling from his lips.

Eventually, the attack eased off and Sabo was able to collapse back into his chair, wheezing as he tried to get his breath back.

Silently, Koala retired the intact bloom from where it had fallen and placed it back into his hands. “I understand,” she said quietly, “Don’t worry.” Then she slipped out, as quietly as she’d slipped in, leaving Sabo to his thoughts.

Sabo looked at the bloody mess of petals on the desk and instinctively curled up around the flower he held. It wasn’t fair, his entire being ached and he didn’t even know who it was for.


	5. Chapter 5

Sabo jerked up as the door to his room slammed into the wall.

“Grab your stuff Blondie, we’re going on a road trip!”

He stared at Koala jaw down and gaping slightly. “I, we, what?”

“Yup, see we’re long overdue for an administrative overview of the East, but since it’s so quiet there, Dragon-san really shouldn’t have to deal with it himself.” Koala was basically ignoring him as she stuffed random things into a bag. _His_ bag, now that he stopped to look at it, why in the blue’s did Koala have his travel bag? “Which is why _we_ are going to take care of it instead.”

“We’re… going to the East Blue?” Sabo said slowly, not sure if he was understanding correctly. “The two of us? Are just going to randomly go to the East Blue?”

“It’s not random, it’s an overdue administrative overview, Sabo. Pay attention.” She was still packing his things.

“And Dragon’s just, letting us go on this ‘ _administrative overview_ ’?”

“Yup.” The end of that p definitely popped.

Sabo was immediately suspicious, Koala didn’t pop her p’s unless she was ridiculously pleased with herself, which usually meant she was doing something that they really weren’t supposed to be doing.

Which was usually his job.

So if Koala was doing it…. “Does Dragon **_know_** we’re going on an administrative overview to the East Blue?”

“He will when we start sending in our reports.”

Sabo stared incredulously. “Koala we can’t just ditch work and run off to the East Blue!”

“We’re not running off we’re taking care of an ov–”

“An overdue administrative overview, yes, I heard, which I’m fairly certain is just something you made up!”

“No, it’s an actual thing. I found all the old paperwork from the last time Dragon-san did them and everything.” Koala looked far too pleased with herself.

“That wasn’t the point I was making, and you know it.”

“Ehhh” She shrugged apparently done shoving Sabo’s things into his bag. “Now come on, the boats leaving in a few minutes.”

“Koala we can’t just leave, there’s work to do and—”

“and in a few weeks, you won’t be doing any work anyways.” She turns and the storm in her gaze as she locks eyes with him causes Sabo to freeze.

“I… Koala…” Sabo trips on his words, unsure, “I can… I mean, I should… there are _options_ …”

“Options you don’t want,” Koala stated voice like tempered steel. “I heard that the medical team has already scheduled a surgery date.”

Sabo couldn’t stop the flinch. He didn’t want to cut it out, but he had run out of excuses to continue to burden everyone with his illness and—

Sabo didn’t realize he had ducked his head until Koala’s calloused hand cupped hid chin and pulled him back up.

“Our first stop’s Dawn Island” Her voice was gentle but unyielding. “It’s not like you to give up without a fight.” Then stepping back, she smirked.

Sabo only had a moment to process the change in demeanor before Koala was snatching his hat and bolting out the door. “Now hurry up or the boat will leave without us!”

Sabo let himself grin as he chased after her, but, more importantly, he let himself **_hope_**.


	6. Chapter 6

Sabo was panicking. As in, he was having a full-blown freak-out and hiding in the deepest corner of the ship he could find. Also, he was going to puke. He was going to puke all over the cabin and Koala was going to kill him for making a mess. Sabo was dry heaving and scrambling at his hair, trying to ground himself. They were coming up on Dawn Island. This was Goa. This was where he was from, the place he was running from, the place where he had….

“Deep breath ‘Bo, that’s it.”

A firm hand pulled his hands away from his head.

“Your hyperventilating, I need you to breath with me, ok?”

His hands were moved to rest on Koala’s chest.

“In and Out, just like this.”

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, Sabo was able to match her controled, even breathing. His brief moment of reprieve was almost immediately ruined however as his body was wracked with coughs, trying to force the newly dislodged flower petals up and out of his windpipe. He wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or humiliated when Koala merely shifted position to push on his back and help coaxed his airway open again. She’d been helping him with these flowers for years after all.

“Better?” She asked softly.

“Yah, Koala I’m—”

“It’s all-right blondie, this is a big deal after all.” Then she winked, “You have always been a scardy cat after all.”

Sabo spluttered.

“Wha—, No, I—”

“Shhhh” She put a finger to his lips, “Wouldn't want to stress yourself out even further would we?”

“I hate you.” Sabo growled, crossing his arms. He was decidedly _not_ pouting.

“I know, now come on, we're almost to Windmill Village.”

Sabo stared, blankly. “We’re going to Dawn Island.”

“Yes, and seeing as going straight to the place you ran away from is a stupid idea, we’re going to the village on the other side of the island instead.”

“There’s a village on the other side of the island?” Sabo repeated stupidly.

“Yes Sabo, there’s a village on the other side of the island,” Koala said slowly as if talking to a child. It probably should have rankled more but Sabo was more distracted by the fact that he felt like he already knew this fact. Well, that and the strange feeling of… excitement? Anticipation? Whatever it was it was almost a positive sensation, which was completely different from the massive freak-out he had litterly just had regarding Go… regarding **_that_** place.

“Windmill Village.” He tried out the sound of it in his mouth. “Huh.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Friendly lot, aren’t they?” Koala mused as they made their way through the small village.

It was true, in an almost unnerving way. The two revolutionaries were used to large metropolises of oppressed and beaten down people, where displays of kindness were 98% of the time a trap. Which made the 2 dozen smiles and the welcomes and the friendly directions up to the “Party Bar” for rooms and good food if there were going to be staying, somewhat disturbing.

Which is to say that Sabo felt torn between crawling out of his own skin or whipping out his pipe and demanding the know what that last fisherman that had wished them a good afternoon was playing at.

He was about to voice this opinion when Koala continued.

“It’s kind of refreshing, don’t you think? I mean, isn’t this what we're working towards? The entire world being like this? Open and happy and just,” She gestured vaguely around, obviously trying to encompass the atmosphere she couldn’t put into words.

“I, Guess?” Sabo supplied unhelpfully. He still felt on edge. “But Goa’s just on the other side of the island, right? The fact that there’s no influence from… _that_ here at all is—”

“Bahh,” A voice cut him off, causing them both to jump and take up combat stances. Somehow an older man with glasses and a striped hat had managed to sneak up on the two _highly trained_ revolutionaries. Said man was evidently completely unphased by their immediate fight response and continued as if he didn’t even notice. “Those arrogant, airheaded aristocrats wouldn’t dare step foot on our Mt. Coulobo and even if they did, if the giant animals didn’t get them, the Mountain Bandits certainly would.”

Sabo felt a twinge at the old man’s words, particularly, giant animals and mountain bandits, but he didn’t have a chance to examine the sensation as the old man just plowed on.

“I’m Mayor Wood Slap what brings you Windmill? We don’t often get visitors around here.” His eyes changed strangely before he asked, “You lot aren’t pirates, are you?”

“No Sir!” Koala chirped jumping into action and wrapping herself into Sabo’s side. “We’re on a tour of the East Blue, _someone_ ,” she nuzzled her head into the side of his neck, “Thought it would be romantic.”

“Er, yeah…” Sabo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. It wasn’t the first time they’d pulled this act. After all, a well-dressed young man with an objectively attractive young woman who were always together fit well into people's preconceived notions of a couple, and 9/10ths of being undercover was using people’s expectations against them.

Wood Slap looked them over, as if appraising them. Then he rolled his eyes and snorted. “If you say so, but you’ll be wanting to head up to see Miss Makino. She runs Party’s Bar and she’ll just be opening up for lunch around now, she’ll get you sorted out. Now shoo.” He shook his cane at them, as if he could magically drive them the rest of the way up the hill with it.

“Thank you!” Koala gave a cutesy wave before tugging on Sabo’s arm. “Come on, come on!”

“All right, all right I’m coming” He laughed playing into the act. He was kind of relieved this was something they did so often. It made it so he didn’t have to think too hard about what he was doing, seeing as he was otherwise highly distracted.

The name kept ringing around in his head.

Makino.

It felt… safe? And almost warm? He _knew_ that name. Which made the whole thing even stranger. After all the Mayor had just said that no one from _that place_ had anything to do with this village, so why would the name of some barmaid resonate so strongly inside his head? Unless she somehow went there to get stock? But then that still wouldn’t explain—

“OUCH!” Sabo grabbed at his cheek and turned to glare at the smirking Koala who still had her fingers outstretched. “Seriously?” he demanded.

“You didn’t respond to your name.” She replied smugly. “Now, as I was saying, we're here.”

Sabo looked up. It wasn’t a very large place, a simple two stories with a plain blue and white sign. “You still didn’t have to pinch me.” He grumbled.

“Stop pouting and come on.” Koala rolled her eyes and dragged him through the swinging half doors.

The inside matched the rest of the town, simple but happy and giving off strong vibes of warmth and home. Sabo didn’t have much time to examine everything however as a woman with light green hair pulled back with a bandana stood up from where she had been retrieving something from behind the half bar.

“Oh, Welcome! Sorry I didn’t notice you! I’m Makino what can I do for—” She bottle she had been holding slipped out of hand and shattered against the ground as her eyes went wide and her hands flew to her mouth. She didn’t even seem to notice the alcohol slowly spreading out across the ground and her feet as she stared, tears in her eyes.

Sabo was frozen not sure what to make of the situation, and it looked like Koala was in a similar state. This was definitely outside of the range of reactions they usually received.

Wanting both to stop feeling so completely out of his depth and also wanting to try and figure out what the bubbly warm feeling that was rapidly spreading through him was, Sabo went to take a step forward to offer to help clean up. Instead, he ended up freezing halfway through the motion and almost falling on his face.

“Sabo?”

How did she know his name?


	8. Chapter 8

“I said **NO!** ” Ace slammed the infirmary door open, flames licking his form as he raged. How _dare_ they! They had no right to tell Ace what to do with his body, with his _life_. They didn’t get to make decisions for him like he was some bratty child…

His internal rant was cut off by a coughing fit that had him doubled over on the ground. He frantically clawed at the inside of his mouth, trying to grab something substantial that he could use to rip the stems out of his throat because he _couldn’t breathe…_

“Shit, Ace!”

“Get Marco!”

Ace distantly heard voices and felt someone’s arms brace against his back and **dig** into his chest, helping force the flowers up enough where he could grab them and begin the painful process of pulling the long woody stems out into the air. He could feel tears slipping down his face as the hard branches scratched and ripped at the tender skin of his throat. Evidently, he wasn’t the only one who noticed because the pain eased up as a hand rested on his neck and cool flames began to dance across his skin.

When Ace could finally breathe again, he had a bundle of stems nearly a foot in length, the tiny blue flowers stained red with blood.

“This can’t continue Ace.” Marco said softly.

“I won’t let you, you can’t...” Ace rasped, desperate.

“We’ve got to cut it out Ace. It’s only mid-April and you need to be on bed rest. There’s no other option, not when you’ve so fervently refused to let us go find this person…”

  
“Never said you couldn’t look…” Ace managed to get out.

“You have been quite insistent that we can’t find him, yoi.” Marco’s tone was still soft, but it had a hard, sharp edge to it.

Ace was silent for several moments before, “You _can’t_ find him, because Sabo’s dead.”

Ace felt more than heard the sharp intake of breath, his weight being almost entirely supported by the other man as it was. Exhausted and spent, Ace closed his eyes, and finally allowed himself to properly cry.


	9. Chapter 9

“Ok, just so I’m understanding this correctly,” Koala shook her head, “he was 5. As in half a decade. Basically a baby. That 5. And he ran away to live in a trash heap. On his own. When he was 5.”

“That’s what the boys told me,” Makino said with a soft smile, shifting Sabo in her lap. She hadn’t actually let him go since the crying rant earlier and he was somewhat terrified that if he tried to move, she would start the rant back up again.

So, despite the fact that he was almost certainly taller than the older woman Sabo found himself planted firmly in her lap, having juice and cookies and far too terrified to move. Although the warm fuzzy feelings he was getting, coupled with the fact that it was very good cookies and juice might have also had something to do with his lack of protests. Possibly. But only a small part. A tiny, infinitesimal part.

Koala had jumped on the ‘embarrassing stories about baby Sabo’ train almost immediately and had been grilling Makino for them. Which was good because Sabo was still trying to process the massive dump of information that his spy trained mind had pulled out of the aforementioned terrifying rant. Namely the parts about Mountain Bandits, Brothers, and Monkey D. Garp the Freaking Fist and father of Dragon-Sama. Who was his grandfather?

“Drink your juice dear, it’s good for you,” Makino mentioned offhandedly, evidently noticing his distraction.

Sabo drank his juice.

“And they fought alligators?” Koala continued, incredulously.

“Oh yes.” Makino laughed, “It’s the boys' favorite food. Oh,” She brightened, sitting up, “I think I have some pictures.” And just like that, she lifted all 6’ 2” of him as she stood up, before plopping him right back in the chair with a look and a finger that said ‘you will not be moving if you know what’s good for you young man.’

Sabo did not move as the barmaid rushed into the back and up the stairs. Instead, he turned to Koala in desperate confusion.

She stared back, obviously not in a helping mood. “What kind of idiot decided to emancipate themselves at 5?” She demanded.

“Me, apparently?” He replied slowly.

Koala’s expression changed at his hesitant tone. “Do you believe her?” she asked softly.

“I…” He trailed off, pondering. The thing was, it felt too good to be true. The first place they stop on this last-ditch, on in a million chance, expedition just happens to be someone who helped raise him and had all the answers and a story of his life that made him into some wild, rebel child instead of the noble spawn he knew himself to be? It was far too perfect to be real, and certainly not something that would ever happen to someone like him. But at the same time…

“She makes me feel _safe_.” He admitted, knowing Koala would understand. In their line of work, there was no such thing as safe. Even at Baltigo, they knew that it was only a matter of time until they were found, and they practiced evacuation drills regularly. So, the fact that the moment he had laid eyes on Ma-Chan he had felt warm and safe and _home_ was….

“Ma-Chan?” Koala’s voice interrupted him; eyebrow raised.

Sabo blinked at her for a minute before he realized **a)** that he had spoken aloud, and **2)** that he evidently had a very cutesy and very childish nickname for the older woman. This realization caused him to flush.

“Aw don’t be embarrassed Sabo- _Kun_.” Koala teased, “It’s cute.”

“Have I mentioned that I hate you?” He grumbled sinking down further in his seat.

“Often.” She nodded. Luckily, he was saved from further humiliation by _Miss Makino_ returning with… a stack of binders?

“Here we are.” She smiled proudly as the binders thunked on the counter. “Now where was that picture with the alligators?” she mussed to herself as she began flipping through the pages of what Sabo quickly realized was a scrapbook. A scrapbook with many, many pictures of little boys. One in particular, but as she flipped there were increasingly more and more with 3 small children, one of whom had blond hair, a gap-toothed smile, a very familiar top hat with even more familiar goggles, and even a pipe half the time.

Either someone had gone to a heck of a lot of trouble to fake this situation, they were caught up in some increasingly more improbably mistaken identity mix up, or they were caught in some dream devil fruit. Sabo’s money was on that last one because there was no way he deserved to be this lucky. That and the more pictures that caught glimpses of, the more his head pounded.

“Here we are!” Makino declared, spinning the scrapbook around to reveal a truly startling picture. There were the same three little boys. The alarming part was that the small one was sitting on a dead alligator that looked like it could easily swallow him whole.

That _had_ swallowed him whole, a tiny voice in the back of Sabo’s mind whispered.

“You were all quite excited to show off your catch,” Makino commented, smiling fondly. “Luffy was quite insistent that ‘he hadn’t even gotten eaten this time’ and thus we simply had to commemorate the moment.”

“He lied,” Sabo responded immediately. His eyes were glued to the photo drinking in the details and not even realizing what he was saying. “But it was only the one time, and he got out on his own, so he insisted that it didn’t count.”

“He got eaten often?” He heard Koala’s voice ask hesitantly, and distantly.

“Every time.” Sabo nodded. “He’d go charging in and, and…” and his head was pounding and he couldn’t think and he couldn’t breathe and…

And he was hacking. Desperately coughing and clutching at his chest as petals clogged his airway and he fought to get them up.

He was distantly aware of Koala immediately moving to his back to support him. He was more aware of the other hands, soft and warm, that were gently massaging his throat and helping to pull petals from his mouth.

Finally, the attack subsided and Sabo was able to survey the mess of bloody petals, and the single whole flower that had come up. Then, those same soft hands cupped his face and tilted it up until he could make eye contact with Ma-chan.

“Oh Sweety, still?”


	10. Chapter 10

“Marco this isn’t right.” Thatch’s voice seemed to linger and echo in his office.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Thatch.” Marco responded sharply, not looking up from his papers.

“Yes, you do.” Came the immediate reply. “You just refuse to acknowledge it because you know I’m right”

Marco pinched the bridge of his nose. “Unless you have some perinate medical issue, yoi, get out of my office. I have work to do.”

“Actually, I do.” Thatch snapped, slapping his hands down onto Marco’s desk. “You’re about to perform surgery on my brother without his consent. I’d say that’s a fairly ‘ _pertinent_ ’ medical issue.”

Marco snapped his head up and glared. Leave it to Thatch to make this infinitely more complicated than it needed to be. Than it already was.

“His judgment is impaired yoi.” He snapped back, fighting to keep up a form of professional cool “In such situations, the family is entitled to make life-saving decisions on behalf of the patient.”

“You could get him through this without the surgery.” Thatch snapped right back, making no efforts to reign in his emotions. “You just don’t want to put in the effort! You seem to have gotten it into your head that you’re _helping_ him get over his emotions when the fact of the matter is that he made a choice and you’re ripping it away from him to satisfy your own—”

“I **_can’t_** ” Marco all but screeched back, control thoroughly shot. “Do you know how risky this operation actually is? Do you really think that if there was anything else I could do that I would willingly be doing this to Ace?” He was trembling as the weight of how _helpless_ he really was in this situation pressed down on him. He’d been doing a fairly good job of distancing himself from the situation, but Thatch had a way of getting under his skin and making that impossible.

“Do you think I want him to hate me? Because he will. I’ve already acknowledged that Ace will likely never forgive me for this, but Thatch, there isn’t another option. Maybe…” Marco sighed, collapsing into his chair. “Maybe if it was a different flower type, something with large petals, where we would have room to force compression and get air in…. but his lungs aren’t full of flower petals Thatch, their full of stems. Stems that are ripping apart the walls of his lungs with every attempted breath. If it goes on much longer, I’m not sure even I can repair the damage.”

Marco finally allowed himself to glance up at Thatch, who looked horror-stricken at Marco’s words.

“But…” Thatch looked like he was trying to find something to say, hand up in an aborted gesture before it fell back to his side.

“Pops has given me orders to save Ace no matter what it takes. There are no other options, Thatch.” Marco said firmly. He pretended that he was trying to convince Thatch and not himself.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cue the Mountain Bandits

Sabo kinda wanted to puke. Again. That was a sensation he was experiencing far too often recently. But he felt it was somewhat justified this time. The Bandit hut had just come into view. Because not only were they willingly and actively seeking out a group of mountain bandits, these were apparently mountain bandits that he sort of grew up with? And who would also have his little brother? Who he did not remember but sort of did? Also, all these people thought he was dead.

“Luffy’s probably not around, he usually likes to explore the mountain and work on his ‘pirate training’ during the day,” Makino commented brightly as they entered the clearing. “But Dadan should be home, oh, everyone’s going to be so excited to see you!”

For some reason, Sabo was fairly certain that that was an optimistic exaggeration. The logical part of him said that his gut feeling was based on his understanding of mountain bandits and criminals and their propensity to not be overly bursting with positive emotions. The more rebellious part of him, the one in the back of his brain that kept shooting down all the reasons that this whole situation was completely insane, said it was because mountain bandits were not babysitters and greatly resented constantly being made to be babysitters by terrifying marine vice-admirals.

Sabo was ignoring that part of his brain. Mostly because he resented the implication that he needed to be babysat. He had been surviving on his own since he was 5 thank you very much.

Allegedly.

He had allegedly been surviving on his own since he was five.

Because evidently, he was now using parts of this insanity to counter other parts of this insanity.

Wonderful.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sabo noticed Koala’s hand darting towards his cheek, and only a lifetime of training allowed him to dodge the oncoming pinch.

“Seriously!”

“You weren’t responding again.” Koala chirped, far too pleased with herself.

Sabo was about to respond with something cutting and _definitely_ win this argument when Koala was saved by a shout.

“ **OY**!! What’s all this about!” A snapping voice demanded.

Sabo turned towards the voice, only to make eye contact with a rooster man.

Magra

“Magra!” Makino called cheerfully. “Are Dadan and Dogra in?”

Magra, whose name he only knew because Ma-Chan had just said it and definitely _didn’t_ just pop spontaneously into his head, didn’t respond; choosing instead to gape openmouthed at Sabo for a few moments before letting out a bellowing “ **BOSS!!!!!!** ”

The effect was instantaneous. There was a loud string of cursing and a large burly woman stormed out of the door to the bandit hut.

“Damn it all Magra! What is it this time!”

Magra was saved from answering by Koala; who had evidently had enough of sitting on the sidelines and strode right up to the much larger woman.

“Hi, My name's Koala!” She chirped, “Who might you be?”

“Why in the bloody blazes should I—”

“Curly Dadan.” Sabo supplied, unprompted, “The manliest hag among men.”

Ok, he wasn’t actually sure where that came from, especially not that last bit. Except he knew for a fact that it was unequivocally true.

And now the leader of the mountain bandits was staring at him.

And gaping.

And spluttering.

Surprisingly, it was the tiny man in the turban (Dogra the traitorous part of his brain supplied) that spoke first.

“ **GHOST!!!** ”

“I am not!” Sabo snorted, affronted, as a stream of bandits came pouring out of the hut and the shout.

“He really isn’t,” Ma-Chan popped in, “There’s a whole, lovely story behind it all, perhaps we should discuss inside?”

It was one of those questions that wasn’t really a question, and despite the fact that these were supposedly cruel, hardened killers they all immediately made noises of consent and began funneling back into the hut.

Except for Dadan.

Whom he had insulted. (Again)

Who was walking towards him.

A part of Sabo was mildly panicking and expecting to have to defend himself.

So, when he was swept up into a sobbing hug he would blame the surprise for his lack of action.

“You damn stupid **brAT**!”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctors fight

“Let me **_OUT_**!!!”

Marco flinched slightly as the shout echoed down the hall.

“Damnit Marco you can’t do this to me, Let me out this instant!!” This exclamation was followed by a loud thud. Evidently, Deuce had taken to slamming on the locked door.

“I’m sorry, Yoi, but you’re being irrational, and we can’t have you—”

“Irrational! **Irrational**! You know what’s irrational! **YOU**! You and this _thrice_ ”,

there was a thud,

“ _Damned_ ,”

Another thud,

“ **Hypocritical** **_CREW_**!!”

“Enough Deuce, that door is reinforced yoi. The only thing you’re going to do is hurt yourself.”

Marco hated this. He had known Deuce wouldn’t like their decision, but he had thought his protégé would understand. Would see that there was no other option.

What made it worse was that Deuce had. He had agreed with Marco’s assessment that there was no way they were going to be able to keep Ace alive through the double growth. Yet when Marco had asked for his help in planning and preparing for the removal surgery, Deuce had flipped on him.

“Well, perhaps if you’re that concerned you should let. _Me_. **_Out_**.” Deuce hissed; venom dripping from his words.

“You nearly destroyed a CB device and you severely damaged one of the dialysis machines, not to mention all the other supplies that were broken and shattered, Yoi. Frankly, confinement is a light punishment in comparison.” Marco kept his voice cold and detached.

He was the 1st Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and he was disciplining an unruly crew member.

  
No more, no less.

“This is _wrong,_ Marco. You know this is wrong. You’re supposed to be a Doctor! You’re supposed to be better than this!” There was desperation creeping into Deuce’s voice now.

“A Doctor is supposed to save lives. That’s what I’m doing, yoi.” And he was, he was saving Ace’s life. He was saving his littlest brother. He would protect his family,

even if it was from themselves.

“Not like this! Not by drugging him out of his mind and putting him under the knife without consent! Marco, _please_!” Deuces voice cracked on the last word, almost as if he was holding in a sob.

Marco almost broke. It hurt to hear Deuce like this. But he clenched his jaw and pushed forward. He was only here to deliver a message, and he would.

“Meals will be provided, and someone will come to release you when Pop’s has deemed your punishment over, yoi. In the meantime, I suggest you reflect on the damage you have caused.” With that, Marco spun on his heel and started to walk away.

“You will never be forgiven for this.”

The words were cold as ice, sharp and biting, and Marco froze in his tracks.

“It won’t be forgotten. Ace will never forgive you, and none of us that truly care for him will ever forgive you either.”

At that, Marco saw red.

“If you cared about Ace at all you wouldn’t be so content to sit there and watch him **_DIE_**!” The end of his sentence was swallowed up by the Phoenix’s shriek.

“No. It’s because I care that I’m willing to let Ace make his own choice, even if that choice takes him away from me. It’s because I care that I refuse to strip away his freedom,” With each word out of Deuce’s mouth it felt like the temperature was dropping, “Refuse to force my selfish desires onto him. It’s because I care that I’m willing to lose my captain rather than cut his heart out of his chest.”

Marco snarled, needing to defend himself. “That’s not what this is, yoi, and you know it.”

“It might as well be.”

“Finally moving on from someone who’s passed is only going to benefit Ace, especially when the other alternative is _death_ , yoi.”

“You don’t know that. You don’t know anything about Ace, or Sabo, or the connection and relationship they shared. You don’t have any idea what effect this will have on Ace, but it gets you what you want so you don’t actually care.”

It felt like Deuce’s words were physically biting into him, digging out every lingering doubt and insecurity Marco had about what needed to happen. Marco steadied himself, taking a deep breath.

“I have my orders, Yoi.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cue the little brother

Despite was Koala might say, Sabo was not nervous.

He was terified.

He was looking for Luffy.

For his little brother.

Whom he had left.

Who thought he was dead.

Dadan and Ma-chan had been content to wait for Luffy to come home after his day of training in the forest but Sabo…. Hadn’t been. He didn’t know what it was, but he wanted to… needed to go now.

Needed to find Luffy.

To see him.

So here he was, wandering the forest and hoping his vague, nearly decade-old instincts to lead him to where Luffy would be. Which, to be fair, he had found their treehouse, so… yeah.

Sabo had basically given up on any alternative but dream devil fruit, and that was becoming a weaker and weaker argument every moment.

It wasn’t that he remembered anything, as much as it was that he didn’t _not_ remember anything. Every vague comment, every place, every behavior, it was all _right_. It all fit together and felt right.

Felt _Real_.

So now he was looking for his little brother who was either going to hate him or start crying and Sabo really didn’t know which one of those would be worse.

All too soon, or maybe not soon enough, Sabo heard the sound of combat growing louder. He stepped out into a small clearing with a neglected chalkboard on the side just in time to hear, “Gum-Gum no’ Pistole!” and watch a rubbery limb fly forward and smack into the rock with a crudely drawn target on it.

Just to the right of the bullseye, Sabo noted.

“Dang it, I missed again!” Sabo didn’t look over at the source of the voice, but he could _hear_ the pout in it.

“Well, at least you actually hit the target this time.”

The words were out of Sabo’s mouth before he really registered what was going on. He flinched involuntarily, expecting shouts, or tears, or—

“Meany Sabo, I haven’t missed the target in forever!”

Not that.

Sabo spun around to face the younger boy, spluttering slightly, not that he’d ever admit it.

Luffy was… everything Sabo didn’t know he was expecting as his little brother finished sticking his tongue out at him and went to line up for another punch.

Sabo sat there staring in shock for a few more punches, before, once again unbidden, he shot out, “Plant your feet better Lu, your feet are sliding when you stretch your arm out and it’s throwing off your aim.”

“Really? Ok!” Luffy immediately shifted his feet, digging them in and hitting his target dead center.

Sabo couldn’t help the surge of pride that welled up inside him.

“I DID IT!!” Luffy yelled, jumping around in his excitement. “Sabo did you see I—”

Luffy slapped his hands over his mouth and sun around so his back was to Sabo.

“Lu?” Sabo asked, extremely confused.

“’m not ‘posed to talk to the lutinations” was the slightly muffled response.

Sabo’s heart sank. That explained the lack of response earlier.

“I’m not a hallucination Luffy. I’m really here.”

“Nuh, uh. You got blowed up. Dogra saw it. And I’m not supposed to talk to the fake Sabos.”

“Do you see fake me’s a lot?”

“Sometimes. Not as often as— I’m not talking to you.”

Sabo made a decision.

It might not be a very good decision, but it was quite frankly the only thing he could think of to do.

He strode over to his little brother, with far more confidence than he actually possessed, and grabbed his shoulders. He purposefully ignored the gasp that came from the physical contact as he spun Luffy around and crushed him to his chest.

“I’m real Luffy. I’m here. I’m so, so sorry.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surgery Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1st: there is a warning for suicidal thought at the end of this chapter
> 
> B: I've spent a lot of time debating over this piece, and seeing if there's another way this story could go, but after working at it for a little while, there really isn't so I'm gonna go ahead and keep the story on this trajectory
> 
> Finally: the timeline between the Ace and Sabo storylines isn't consistent. they're chronological to themselves, but what's happening in Sabo's chapters and what's happening in Ace's aren't happening at the exact same time. I want to bring this up now because it will be very confusing if you try to force them to correlate when Sabo has a lot of events in one day, and Ace has been having a really bad week.

Ace heard the door open.

“Go away.” His voice sounded dead, even to his own ears.

“I brought lunch!” Thatch’s exuberance sounded obviously forced.

“I’m not hungry.” Ace deadpanned, not bothering to roll over and look at his visitor.

“Oh, don’t give me that!” Thatch tried to mockingly scold, “You need to eat to get your strength back up, Doctors orders!”

That was the wrong thing to say, and Thatch evidently knew it because Ace heard a sharp intake of breath as the chef likely realized what had just come out of his mouth.

“Well, if we ever get a real doctor on this ship, I’ll be sure to listen to them.” Ace snapped, not even attempting to disguise the venom in his voice.

“Ace…”

“Get out.”

“Listen, you need to—”

“I said,” Ace snarled sitting up and spinning around to face the intruder, “ _get out_.”

“No, Ace you can’t keep—” Thatch’s words were cut off when Ace grabbed him by the collar and hurled him out of his room, kicking the cart of food out after him before slamming the door shut and shoving his chair underneath the handle.

Ace could hear Thatch on the other side of the door, but he chose not to listen as his anger faded and everything went back to being numb.

That’s really all he felt anymore, he mused, dragging himself back into the bed. If he wasn’t angry, he was numb. When he was angry, he wanted to burn the ship down, or maybe go back to trying to kill Whitebeard. He refused to think of that man as a father anymore, not when he had allowed this. Not when he had _ordered_ this. And when he was numb, he didn’t want to do anything but lie here and wait to fall asleep.

Distantly, Ace acknowledged that he was worrying everyone else, that he was having an ‘abnormal reaction’ to the surgery. Personally, he wasn’t sure what else they were expecting. They’d cut out everything he had from the person who had taken a snarling, feral brat and made him into an actual human being and they expected that nothing would change?

Ace couldn’t help but snort as he twisted in the bed and buried his face in the pillow. Maybe he’d suffocate as he slept. Then he could go apologize to Sabo in person for letting this happen.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Littel Brothers shouldn't be this cute

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!!!!
> 
> I want to apologize to anyone who was upset or hurt with the last chapter. I have added in tags to reflect the changes in the story, and I would be happy to add in anything else people feel like I have missed, please just let me know so I can get the appropriate warnings up for people. When I started this story it was literally a spur-of-the-moment decision when I got hit by inspiration from a tumble post, and I honestly had no idea where it would go at the beginning. I have a better idea of it now. This story is going to have some dark elements. Ace is not in a good place and that is going to be reflected in his behavior and actions. It will not be pretty. I know some people might be uncomfortable with that, and for anyone who feels like they wouldn't want to continue to read through that, but are still invested in the story and what to know how it would end, please feel free to message me, and I will gladly let you know my plans and outlines for the rest of the story.
> 
> Thank you and I hope you enjoy some more lighthearted Fluff and feels

Sabo was having trouble breathing.

Which was probably because he couldn’t’ actually see his chest under the many, many loops of rubber limbs.

Now, Sabo could easily rectify this problem.

But that would require pulling his baby brother off of him, which was something he was vehemently against.

So, Sabo was just sitting there, taking shallow breaths while Luffy snuffled into his shoulder.

“ ‘abo?”

Sabo’s attention was immediately on his baby brother.

“Yes Lu?”

“Why didn’t you come back?”

And Sabo felt his heart shatter.

Again.

“I… I didn’t…. I forgot.”

“Forgot to come home?”

The raw, pained confusion in Luffy’s voice cut through Sabo like knives.

“N—no Lu, I forgot, everything. I got amnesia. I didn’t even remember my name, Luffy I promise if I had remembered I would have come right back, I shouldn’t have even left in the first place, I should have been patient, should have figured out a better plan I—”

“So, Sabo didn’t stay away on purpose?”

“NO!! Lu I promise I—”

“Then that’s ok then! Sabo’s back now so it’s all good!”

His little brother’s grin was blinding and quite frankly Sabo wasn’t sure his heart could take it. He sat there gaping slightly and just basking in the warmth from that mini sun. But of course, Luffy was far too energetic to let his big brother simply sit and enjoy the moment.

“Oh!! We need to go tell Ma-chan! And Dadan! And Woodslap! And Mogra and Dorgra and—”

“Easy Lu!” Sabo couldn’t help but laugh, “They already know.”

“WHAAAA!!!”

Luffy’s confusion was absolutely adorable Sabo decided.

“Miss Makino is the one who helped me start remembering, and she brought me up to Dadan’s to see if you were there.” He explained gently.

“No fair!”

Sabo had to concede that Luffy’s pout was equally adorable.

“Sorry Lu,” He nuzzled into Luffy’s neck, “But why don’t we head to Dadan’s to see everyone and you can tell me all about the trouble you’ve been up to while I was away, ok?”

“Yosh!”

Before Sabo could blink the multitude of limbs had unraveled and he was being dragged at breakneck speed through their woods.


End file.
